Category: Military

Captain Bill Cooper was an American World War II fighter.  He flew 70 missions, including during D-Day, Battle of the Bulge and the invasion of Holland. One of his planes was the P-47 Thunderbolt, of which he said, “It took a lot of punishment.” Shot down three times, he always managed to get back to his own lines. During one mission he had to crash land at his airfield. With a massive hole in his right wing and part of his tail missing, he had to touch down at 200 MPH.   Another time he was shot down over some farmland.  When an enemy soldier began shooting at him, he dashed into the woods, hiding in a mound of potatoes to escape detection. Not all of his stunts were in battle, however.  One time he decided to fly under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.  Seems there was a bottle of whiskey at stake.  He and his wingman pulled it off, turning their planes sideways to fit through.  No small fuss ensued, and it was a good thing pilots were needed in the air. Cooper earned many medals, including five Bronze Stars and the Army Air Forces’ highest honor, the Distinguished Flying Cross.

 

Thanks for reading! We hope you enjoyed our post. Please share with all your fellow patriots. Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

United States Army Flag	God Guns Guts & Glory
Liberty or Death Red Rifles Flag	2nd Amendment GW Quote Flag

     

In October 1944, General Douglas Macarthur stepped onto the Philippine island of Leyte, and made his radio announcement to let the Japanese and the world know: “People of the Philippines, I have returned!”

It was December 1944. PFC Dirk Vlug and his regiment were was on Leyte Island to chase retreating Japanese across the jungle. He was standing guard duty at roadblock outside the city of Ormoc when suddenly two enemy tanks headed his way. The tanks were about to meet their worst nightmare as someone was about to earn the U. S. Medal of Honor.   Private Dirk calmly picked up his bazooka and advanced on the first tank,. 37mm rounds struck all around him, but they all missed. He loaded, fired and destroyed the tank.

Crew from the second tank dismounted to attack him. But He fought back with his .45 Colt 1911, chasing them back into the tank. Then he reloaded the bazooka and destroyed his second armored vehicle of the day.

Three more hostile tanks approached. Vlug ran up beside the first and blew it up. More bullets flew at him, but he kept running toward the second one, also taking it out with a direct hit. The third veered, but Vlug was faster. Again, he came under heavy fire. Unruffled, he proceeded to take out the fourth tank.The remaining tank should have taken a hint by now. With his one remaining round Dirk blasted the fifth one. He only grazed it, but it was enough. He watched it tumble down a cliff. History doesn’t tell us what this private did next, but I you can just picture him walking back to his post, lighting up a cigarette, and saying to himself, ”Nobody’s gonna get past MY roadblock!” For his outstanding courage and performance,  Vlug was awarded a US Medal of Honor on June 26, 1946.In the picture above Private Vlug  poses with a tank he destroyed.

Thanks for reading! We hope you enjoyed our post. Please share with all your fellow patriots. Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

United States Army Flag Buy Now!	POW MIA Flag Buy Now!
Eagle Patriotic Flag Buy Now!	God, Guns, Guts & Glory Flag Buy Now!

On Easter Sunday morning 1972, Marine Corps Captain John Ripley was in a South Vietnamese village. He was there to help train 600 South Vietnamese Marines. But no one was thinking about that now. An enemy armored division had appeared on the other side of the river. Two hundred tanks and 20,000 men were assembling to cross a bridge and annihilate Ripley and the Marines.

Ripley later said,

“We didn’t have the wherewithal to stop that many tanks. We had little hand-held weapons. And we certainly didn’t have anything on the scale that was needed to deal with the threat. Originally  20 tanks had been reported.”

An aerial observer, quite high up, flew over and said,

“You got bumper to bumper tanks from the Ben Hai River all the way to Dong Ha. They can’t even turn around they’ve got so many of them.”

There was only one solution: blow the bridge.

A later observation reads,

“I don’t think it ever entered his mind not to do what he had to do. Despite the fact that someone might say, ‘Do you realize what you’re doing?’ What did they want him to do? Turn the radios off and leave? That’s just not the Marine Corps way. Ever!”

A South Vietnamese Marine Sergeant fired on and disabled an enemy tank at the head of the column, buying time. A Naval Academy graduate, Ripley already had two Bronze Stars, a Silver Star and a Purple Heart. He’d served with Marine Force Recon, British Royal Marines and Army Airborne Rangers (he’s the only Marine in the Army Ranger Hall of Fame).Ripley was soon swinging like a monkey from the underside of the bridge, hand over hand, setting explosives. This was not a movie, where you just put them any old place. To blow a steel and concrete bridge, you have to get the right placements and patterns.It took Ripley a dozen trips to position the charges, each time with huge loads of TNT and C4, each time with bullets pinging around him. Then two more trips to set the detonators.

Exhausted, muscles burning, he was waiting on the riverbank for the explosion when he saw an injured mother with her child trailing well behind. The explosion would have killed the little girl, so Ripley raced out, scooped her up and raced away from the bridge toward the mother. Boom! The explosion blew Ripley and the child into the air. He landed, with the child safe on top of him. When the smoke cleared, Ripley saw the whole bridge had collapsed.

Well done, Vietnam Vet Captain Ripley!

 

Thanks for reading! We hope you enjoyed our post. Please share with all your fellow patriots. Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

Men need cool and aggressive leadership when under fire. Captain Roger Donlon displayed just that on July 5, 1964. At 2:26 AM a barrage of mortar shells rained on his Special Forces Detachment camp.

He had just written to his wife, “All hell is going to break loose here before the night is over.”

He was not alone in his premonition. Most of the twelve men manning the small outpost just 15 miles from Laos in the Republic of Vietnam, had the same feeling.

Under attack by a Viet Cong battalion, the men were outnumbered three to one. Barking orders and directing defense, Donlon raced through exploding grenades and rifle fire to stop a breach at the main gate. Single-handedly taking out an enemy demolition team, he got his first injury of the night: a severe stomach wound. Disregarding his injury, Donlon stayed behind to cover the withdrawal of a mortar team. An explosion sent shrapnel into his shoulder, but once the men were safe he carried the mortar back to a new position. Captain Donlon moved around the camp, administering first aid, dragging ammunition to gun positions, directing mortar fire. With still another wound to his leg, Donlon went from position to position, hurling grenades and encouraging men to do the impossible. Another mortar shell exploded, wounding him in the face and body. Five hours of non-stop fighting continued. Finally, daylight arrived, and the enemy withdrew. Donlon later said that courage “was the core that allowed us to do things beyond what we thought we’d be capable of.” Captain Donlon was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that night.

All nine surviving members of Team joined Donlon at the White House where President Lyndon Johnson hung the Medal of Honor around their team leader’s neck. The humble hero said, “The medal belongs to them, too.”

Later he  wrote about that night of fighting, “It was a team effort, and I was simply the designated leader.”

Captain Donlon’s award was the first Medal of Honor awarded for action during the 14 year Vietnam War. 238 American soldiers would ultimately earn our nation’s highest honor for service in that war.

Thanks for reading! We hope you enjoyed our post. Please share with all your fellow patriots. Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

United States Army Flag Buy Now!	God Guns Guts & Glory
POW MIA – All Gave Some Some Gave All	Vintage USA / Dont Tread on Me  Flag – Buy Now!

Korean War POW to be buried in Robert E Lee’s Arlington Cemetery

First Lt. Herman Falk, a 1950 graduate of The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, went missing with 156 other soldiers from Company B, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, on Feb. 12, 1951, during operations against the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces near Changboing-ni, Korea.

US troops held as prisoners of war had reported that Herman Falk had died in captivity. These reports surfaced after the war and stated that he died within a few months after his capture at San Bean Camp in North Korea.

On Sept 4 2018: The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, killed during the Korean War, have been identified as those of Army 1st Lt. Herman L. Falk. Falk, 22, of New York, New York, was accounted for on August 14.

He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, the once homestead gardens of Robert E Lee, with full honors in April of 2019.

In July of 2018 North Korea returned 55 boxes of remains to the United States.

“The Citadel has a long tradition of answering when country calls. 1st Lt. Herman Falk is one of the heroes who answered that call,” said Col. John L. Dorrian, vice president for communication and marketing for the Citadel in South Carolina.

Senior Year book 1950 photo of Herman Falk

Support our sponsors, the US Flag at the time of the Korean War was a 48 star American flag.

Support our sponsors, the US Flag at the time of the Korean War was a 48 star American flag.

https://apple.news/AcPX50ImQTkuMB-2SUFjmTA

 

Thanks for reading! We hope you enjoyed our post. Please share with all your fellow patriots. Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

Tony saw plenty of combat in the Pacific.

But he is most famed for his actions at the Battle of Iwo Jima.

A son of immigrants, Tony Stein enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942, becoming a Paramarine.

Paramarines were an experiment to test the idea of dropping Marines into battle. His regiment saw plenty of combat. In the Solomon Islands northeast of Australia, Tony took out 5 snipers in a single day.

Tony was reassigned to the Fifth Marine Division in 1944. He had been a  toolmaker before the war, and he worked with an armorer to modify an aircraft machine gun from a dive bomber. Called “Stinger,” the weapon had twice the rate of fire of the Browning .30 caliber infantry machine gun.

When Tony hit the beach at Iwo, his platoon got pinned down by mortar and machine gun fire. To locate enemy positions, Tony stood up and waved to draw fire.

Then he charged, Stinger blazing away. One after another he assaulted the pillboxes.

Stinger’s heavy rate of fire meant Tony quickly ran out of ammo. So he kicked off his boots and helmet so he could move fast on the sand, and headed back to the beach for more ammo.

On his way he picked up a wounded Marine, carrying him back for treatment.

He made this trip 8 times, each time bringing a wounded man back to the beach and grabbing more belts of ammunition.

Finally, he directed fire from a half-track against a stubborn pillbox until all the fortifications were destroyed.

The Marines pushed on until the American flag was raised on Mount Suribachi.

Corporal Tony Stein was wounded in that battle. Evacuated to a hospital ship, his actions would earn him a Medal of Honor. But while recovering on his cot, Tony got word that his regiment was taking heavy casualties during the continuing battle for the island.

This Marine simply got up and returned to his unit.  What a brave man! May we all have the courage to stand up for what’s right when duty calls.

Thanks for reading! We hope you enjoyed our post. Please share with all your fellow patriots. Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

Washington Quote Green Flag!	American Flags
POW MIA Flag – All Gave Some Some Gave All	God Guns Guts & Glory Flag

Retired Army Colonel Van T. Barfoot loved his country and had served it bravely in three wars, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. So, he proudly flew his American flag on a 21 foot pole in the front yard of his Virginia home.

But in December 2009, his local homeowners’ association told the veteran, now 90 years of age, to take down that flagpole because, according to them, it “violated the neighborhood’s aesthetic guidelines”, and they threatened legal action.

They didn’t know who they were messing with. Barfoot was someone very special, and was not used to backing down.During his long military career Barfoot earned the Bronze Star for valor during the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943.He earned the Silver Star for actions during the invasion of mainland Italy in December 1943.During his next campaign he was to earn the Medal of Honor. Here’s how that story goes:In January 1944, Sergeant Barfoot landed at Anzio and advanced inland and his unit became isolated and their communications cut. What did Barfoot do?

His Medal of Honor citation reads:

He “single-handedly destroyed a set of German machine gun nests, killed eight enemy soldiers, took 17 prisoners and stared down a tank before destroying it and killing its crew — all in a single day. Exhausted by his herculean efforts, he still managed to move two of his wounded men 1,700 yards to safety.”

That was in Italy. By the time he moved on to France he was a lieutenant.Barfoot didn’t hang up his uniform until 1973.

What was this group thinking? They were trying to deny permission to put up a pole to fly the Stars and Stripes of the nation he loved and had so honorably served? Well, the news got out. The American Legion rallied behind him, and so did the Governor of Virginia, and the White House.Colonel Barfoot’s flag kept flying.

As a result of this so called “controversy, ”in February 2010, the Virginia Senate approved a bill to bar homeowners associations from prohibiting display of the U.S. flag.

Thank you for another victory, Colonel Barfoot. Well done!

Thanks for reading! We hope you enjoyed our post. Please share with all your fellow patriots. Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

United States Army Flag Buy Now!	POW MIA Flag Buy Now!
State of Virginia Flag Buy Now!	Patriotic American Flag Buy Now!

How tough do you have to be to survive a Nazi concentration camp, defend a hilltop against wave after wave of enemy troops – twice – then spend 2 ½ years in another hellish prison camp, and still live through it?

Hard as nails tough, Corporal Rubin tough. That’s him in the photo.

Hungarian-born Tibor Rubin was 13-years-old when the Nazi’s swept over his family’s land. Because he was Jewish, Rubin was shipped off to Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Somehow, he managed to survive for 14 months until liberated by American troops.

To repay the favor, Rubin managed to make his way to America and enlist in the US Army. Assigned to the 1^st Cavalry Division, he was soon in the Korean War.

Corporal Rubin’s unit was atop a hill when it was attacked by “overwhelming numbers of North Korean troops.” Every one of his teammates were killed, but Rubin didn’t quit and didn’t run.

His Congressional Medal of Honor citation states he “inflicted a staggering number of casualties on the attacking force during his personal 24-hour battle, single-handedly slowing the enemy advance and allowing the 8th Cavalry Regiment to complete its withdrawal successfully.”

When reinforcements arrived they found Rubin with a smoking gun, out of ammo, and surrounded by more enemy casualties than could be counted.

Two weeks later he made a one-man assault and captured over 100 enemy troops, by himself.

A few months later his unit was hit by a massive nighttime assault. Manning a machine gun throughout the night and the next day, he allowed his unit to retreat. He kept at it until he ran out of ammo, was severely wounded and captured by enemy soldiers.

Despite an offer by his captors to return him to Hungary, Rubin stayed. He saved the lives of 40 of his buddies by repeatedly sneaking out of the POW camp to scrounge up food and medical supplies to care for wounded and starving prisoners.

Using raw courage and what he’d learned in the Nazi camps, Corporal Rubin kept at it for 2 ½ years until he and his fellow prisoners were finally released.  Thank you for your service Corporal.  May we all be as brave and courageous as you.

Thanks for reading! Please share with your fellow patriots on social media.  Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

1st Cavalry Division Flag Available Here!

US Army Flag Available Here!

POW MIA Flag Available Here!

In Vietnam, he was part of an operation to battle and stop the Viet Cong’s resupply line along the coast.

Within a year the enemy had to go inland to move supplies, using the tortuous Ho Chi Minh Trail as it wound through Laos and Cambodia.  Chief Warrant Officer Bernard Webber added that victory to a long career, and retired.

But that’s not why we know him today…

Webber was in the Merchant Marines during WW 2. When the war ended, he joined the Coast Guard. Good thing, too, because he was to perform an impossible rescue.

It was February, 1952. A major storm had snapped a couple of oil tankers in half. Webber led three other sailors out to sea in 36′ wooden boat, plowing through waves bigger than a house.

You go overboard in those conditions, you die.

I know, because I got caught in stormy seas when I was in uniform. You cannot breathe on the surface in something like that! I only lived because I was in scuba gear, with two large tanks of air. And Old Man Sea took rare pity: before my air ran out, he shoved me into the only tiny cove in a mile of sheer cliffs.

Don’t ask why I was in there, but I was not meant to be in that water when the storm hit. When it did, I had little hope.

But these men knowingly sailed into an even bigger storm! The sea tore away their compass, but they bravely pressed on. 

They found one of the tankers and rescued 32 of the 33 on board. That feat alone just couldn’t be done.

But every man in the Coast Guard knows the slogan:

“You have to go out. You don’t have to come back.”

Well Done USCG! Thank you for all that you do.

Thanks for reading! We hope you enjoyed our post.  Please share with your fellow patriots on social media.  Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

US Coast Guard Flag Available Here!

US Merchant Marine Flag Available Here!

Commodore Perry Flag Dont Give Up the Ship Available Here!

 

Before the Battle of the Bulge of WWII, American forces fought the Battle of Hurtgen Forest – the longest single battle in the history of the US Army. When the Germans were defeated in France in August 1944, GIs began to believe the war would be over by Christmas, but when the Americans reached German territory, things changed. It became the longest battle on German soil.

It was fierce combat that went on for three months, in German woods that looked like something out of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. And like those stories, death lurked around the corner. Julius Astin was there:

“The Germans were dug in. We couldn’t make any headway because the forest was thick with vegetation, booby traps and mines. One thing we hated was the airburst 88mm shells, fused to explode as soon as they struck the trees, sending shrapnel and wood splinters sharp as spears down on us.”

So the Americans became tree-huggers to avoid the rain of death from above. “You move, you die,” Astin said. “A lot of the shrapnel is still in there,” referring to his body.

Private Marcario Garcia was also in the Hurtgen Forest. His company was pinned down by machine gun fire at on November 27th, 1944. Seriously wounded, Garcia decided to do something about it. He crawled forward, inch-by-inch, until he was close enough to hurl a grenade into the machine gun nest.

Another machine gun opened up as Garcia got back to his teammates. Now he was pretty fed up, so he charged the second nest and destroyed it, returning with four prisoners.

Still bleeding, Garcia continued to fight until his company’s objective was taken. His Medal of Honor citation states, “Only then did he permit himself to be removed for medical care.”

Private Garcia  was the first Mexican citizen to receive America’s highest award for bravery. (Later in 1945 President Truman honored him at a White House ceremony. Garcia became an American citizen in 1947.)

During Hurtgen Forest,a dozen American Infantry, Airborne, and Armored Divisions ducked it out with 14 divisions of the Wehrmacht. And the only reason it ended was because the Battle of the Bulge started up.

The Battle of the Hurtgen Forest lasted from September 1944 to February 1945. Despite its length and great loss of life, it was overshadowed by the Battle of the Bulge victory. It takes its place as one of the forgotten battles of World War II.

We may forget the details of the battles and the war, but let’s never forget about those individual women and men, the heroes, like Private Garcia, who sacrificed much and served so bravely.  Thank you for making America proud Private Garcia.

Thanks for reading! We hope you enjoyed our post. Please share with all your fellow patriots. Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

United States Army Flag Buy Now!	48 Star USA Flag in WW2 Buy Now!
Airborne Flag Buy Now!	Vintage USA / Dont Tread on Me  Flag – Buy Now!

This is the second story about “The Filthy 13.” If you missed the first one, you can read it here.

Known for their disregard of military discipline, they didn’t take a lot of baths, didn’t keep their barracks clean. Too busy going AWOL.

They were members of the 101st Airborne, as you can see from the left shoulder patch in the photo here. Demolition and sabotage experts, they were dropped behind enemy lines and in advance of Allied forces.

Sergeant McNiece called himself “the head troublemaker.” Half Choctaw, he had an idea before D-Day:

“When we got ready to jump into Normandy, all of us had scalplocks (Mohawks). We also had our faces painted.”

This is the same McNiece who described what his enlisting officer had to say:

“You may just be 23. I don’t know, but your face and your head looks like it’s been used as practice for hand grenade tossing and wore out three bodies already.”

The Filthy 13 were airdropped into France during the Normandy Invasion. They had orders to secure or destroy bridges over the Douve River, the boundary between Utah and Omaha Beach landings.

Robert “Ragsman” Cone was there:

“We landed near a hedgerow, from which the Germans were firing at us, and the guy I was with was killed. I got hit in the right shoulder, which broke my arm all the way down into the forearm. The bullet was lodged in there for a year.”

That’s Ragsman in the photo, checking packs of weapons, ammo and TNT.

When they got to the bridge they didn’t bother to secure it. True to form, they just blew it up instead, blocking enemy reinforcements from getting to the front.

The survivors of the Filthy 13 stayed intact as a unit until the Allies finally conquered Nazi Germany. They were in too many engagements to detail here, things like parachuting into encircled Bastogne in the middle of the Battle of the Bulge.

But those are tales for another day.

Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

Thanks for reading! We hope you enjoyed this post. Please feel free to share on social media with all your fellow patriots.

 

Buy Now Click Here! Army- 82nd Airborne Division

101st Airborne Division Buy Now Click Here!

48 Star American Flag 1912-1959Get Yours Now!- Click Here

Have you ever seen the movie, The Dirty Dozen? The real life soldiers it was based on were known as “The Filthy 13.” And a crew of troublemakers they were!

Jack Agnew recalled it like this:

“We weren’t murderers or nothing. We just did a lot more than they asked us to do, and we were always getting in trouble for that.”

The Filthy 13 was an unofficial demolition unit of the 101^st Airborne. Sergeant Jake McNiece is probably its most famous (or infamous) member. Always in trouble for skipping reveille, one time he claimed that it violated his mother’s Choctaw Indian heritage. That didn’t work, so he went on a drinking binge in town:

“I ended up beating the MPs with their own nightsticks.”

A few days later he got out of the stockade.

“But we went AWOL every weekend that we wanted to and we stayed as long as we wanted till we returned back, because we knew they needed us badly for combat. And it would just be a few days in the brig. We stole Jeeps. We stole trains. We blew up barracks. We blew down trees. We stole the colonel’s whiskey and things like that.”

They became famous when Stars and Stripes newspaper featured a photo of them.

McNiece had the idea to cut their hair into mohawks and wear war paint, as part of their upcoming mission behind enemy lines on D-Day.

And blow things up they sure did. Jake himself made four combat jumps, staring with with one on D-Day. He wasn’t an Airborne Screaming Eagle for nothing.

We’ll cover some of that in the next installment.

And I’ll tell you how they got their name.

Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

Thanks for reading! We hope you enjoyed this post. Please feel free to share on social media with all your fellow patriots.

 

Buy Now Click Here! US Army

101st Airborne Division Buy Now Click Here!

Vintage Pledge Allegiance FlagGet Yours Now!- Click Here